1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rudder propeller with a drive shaft and a propeller shaft that can be driven by the drive shaft by an angular drive and a planetary gearing, the planetary gearing can be situated on the propeller shaft and include a sun gear connected to the angular gear by a coupling, a stationary ring gear, and planet gears that are mounted on a planet carrier and travel between the sun gear and the ring gear, and the planet carrier can be mounted to the propeller shaft in a torsionally rigid fashion.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Rudder propellers of the type mentioned above are known, for example, from German Patent Reference DE 28 43 459 A1. The rudder propeller is used to drive and steer a watercraft. The motor torque of a drive motor, which is usually situated inside the watercraft, is transmitted via a vertically extending drive shaft and an angular drive, which has a planetary gearing connected downstream of it, to the horizontally extending propeller shaft, which supports the propeller. The angular drive and the planetary gearing are accommodated in a shared housing that is situated outside the hull and can be rotated around the vertical axis for purposes of steering the watercraft. Thus, the aim is to make this housing as streamlined as possible, such as with small external dimensions, which places limitations on the dimensions of the propeller shaft bearings and other parts inside the housing. On the other hand, the planetary gearing is subject to considerable loads during operation of the rudder propeller, for example, due to the axial pressure of the propeller on the propeller shaft and the deflection curve that occurs in the propeller shaft due to the weight of the propeller. To achieve the most uniform possible distribution of load to the planet gears of the planetary gearing despite the occurrence of these forces, it is known to provide a coupling between the sun gear and the angular drive, such as a set of coupling teeth that engage a set of internal teeth provided in the angular drive. This achieves a suspension of the sun gear through the guidance of the teeth, which gives the sun gear a certain ability to radially compensate for forces that occur. However, this suspension of the sun gear does not counteract an angular offset between the sun gear and the angular drive so that a coupling of this kind known from the prior art is not only complex, but also is still subject to wear, a situation which appears in need of improvement.